Just Add Glitter

When life hands you lemons, make lemonade—but when life’s got you “bored, ignored or feeling down,” writes DiTerlizzi (I Wanna Be a Cowgirl), “just add glitter.” Indeed, a girl’s rainy day turns around when a box containing several bottles of colored glitter arrives on her doorstep. What starts as a series of modest embellishments (the girl covers her paper crown in green sparkles) soon becomes a way of life: “Have you made your whole world gleam?/ Do you love this glistening dream?/ Then grab a ton, have fun, and scream,/ ‘Add more glitter!’ ” Cotterill (Charlotte and the Rock) embeds actual glitter into her hand-drawn and cut-paper pictures, and the dazzle of it all, combined with the exuberance of the protagonist and her cat sidekick, will sweep many readers up into joyful glittermania. Rest assured, though, that the final spreads show the girl diligently sweeping up mounds of glitter, while the cat tries to scratch the stuff out of its fur (good luck with that). A final image teases that there may be more crafty fun to come. Anyone for googly eyes? Ages 4–8. [em](Oct.) [/em]